Recovery for All: Proposals to Strengthen the National Housing Strategy and End Homelessness

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) Recovery for All campaign recommends an enhanced federal commitment (with timelines and targets) as a way to implement a rapid and extensive response and to end homelessness. The current pandemic adds urgency to this objective with the intent to prevent those temporarily housed during COVID-19 from being returned into an emergency shelter system that perpetuates chronic homelessness.

Recovery for All recommends a higher objective than those in the National Housing Strategy (NHS) by providing affordable and supportive housing, and enhanced rental support to some 350,000 low-income individuals and families; it sets out the steps and investments necessary to end all homelessness, such that those experiencing emergency situations and at risk of becoming homeless face only a brief and temporary period of instability and are quickly rehoused.

This report details the key initiatives and strategies needed to implement that plan. It is an action plan for a purposeful and meaningful process to end homelessness. It also seeks to ensure effective preparedness for future large-scale emergencies and pandemics.

And to achieve these aims, it recommends a substantial increase in funding directed to end homelessness in the federal NHS, complemented and supported by actions from provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, including housing stakeholders.

Publication Date: 
2020